Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
301 redirect syntax for htaccess
-
I'm working on some htaccess redirects for a few stray pages and have come across a few different varieties of 301s that are confusing me a bit....Most sources suggest:
Redirect 301 /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
or using some combination of:
RewriteRule + RewriteCond + RegEx
I've also found examples of:
RedirectPermanent /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
I'm confused because our current htaccess file has quite a few (working) redirects that look like this:
Redirect permanent /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
This syntax seems to work, but I'm yet to find another Redirect permanent in the wild, only examples of Redirect 301 or RedirectPermanent
Is there any difference between these? Would I benefit at all from replacing Redirect permanent with Redirect 301?
-
There is no difference between "Redirect 301", "Redirect permanent" and "RedirectPermanent". It is clear from mod Alias documentation:
"This directive makes the client know that the Redirect is permanent (status 301). Exactly equivalent to
Redirect permanent
." "permanent - Returns a permanent redirect status (301) indicating that the resource has moved permanently."But, these directives are really confusing, because they are not page to page, but directory to directory. For example:
Redirect 301 /a-very-old-post/ http://yoursite.com/a-very-new-post/
Surprisingly, it will redirect all old subpages to new subpages. In particular it will redirect /a-very-old-post/page1 to /a-very-new-post/page1 Therefore better to use RedirectMatch or RewriteCond+RewriteRule for page by page redirections and for redirections with query strings.
Links to docs: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B14099_19/web.1012/q20206/mod/mod_alias.html
Link to simple RedirectMatch page by page redirects generator: RedirectMatch generator for htaccess https://www.301-redirect.online/htaccess-redirectmatch-generator
Link to good RewriteRule generator: htaccess 301 redirect rewrite generator https://www.301-redirect.online/htaccess-rewrite-generator
-
In **apache **"permanent" "RedirectPermanent" is the same as "Redirect 301"
By default, the "Redirect" directive establishes a 302, or temporary, redirect.
If you would like to create a permanent redirect, you can do so in either of the following two ways:
- Redirect 301 /oldlocation http://www.domain2.com/newlocation
- Redirect permanent /oldlocation http://www.domain2.com/newlocation
Page to Page 301 Redirect Generator for Htaccess
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/
If no <var>status</var> argument is given, the redirect will be "temporary" (HTTP status 302). This indicates to the client that the resource has moved temporarily. The <var>status</var> argument can be used to return other HTTP status codes:
<dl> "permanent" & "Redirect 301"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a permanent redirect status (301) indicating that the resource has moved permanently.</dd>
"temp"</dl>
<dl>
<dt>Returns a temporary redirect status (302). This is the default.</dt>
"seeother"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a "See Other" status (303) indicating that the resource has been replaced.</dd>
"gone"</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Returns a "Gone" status (410) indicating that the resource has been permanently removed. When this status is used the <var>URL</var> argument should be omitted.</dd>
</dl>
**https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_alias.html **
https://www.bruceclay.com/blog/how-to-properly-implement-a-301-redirect/
To 301 Redirect a Page:
RedirectPermanent /old-file.html http://www.domain.com/new-file.html
To 301 Redirect a Page:
Redirect 301 /old-file.html http://www.domain.com/new-file.html
https://i.imgur.com/PTEj5ZF.png
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/
Single URL redirect
Permanent redirect from pageA_.html_ to pageB.html.
.htaccess:
301 Redirect URLs.
Redirect 301 /pageA.html http://www.site.com/pageB.html
https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/page-to-page/
<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /pageA.html /pageB.html</ifmodule>https://www.htaccessredirect.net/
//Rewrite to www
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^site.com[nc]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.site.com/$1 [r=301,nc]//301 Redirect Old File
Redirect 301 /pageA.html /pageB.htmlYou asked about Regex
https://mediatemple.net/community/products/dv/204643270/using-htaccess-rewrite-rules
.htaccess
Regular expressions
Rewrite rules often contain symbols that make a regular expression (regex). This is how the server knows exactly how you want your URL changed. However, regular expressions can be tricky to decipher at first glance. Here's some common elements you will see in your rewrite rules, along with some specific examples.
- ^ begins the line to match.
- $ ends the line to match.
- So, ^folder1$ matches folder1 exactly.
- . stands for "any non-whitespace character" (example: a, B, 3).
- * means that the previous character can be matched zero or more times.
- So, ^uploads.*$ matches uploads2009, uploads2010, etc.
- ^.*$ means "match anything and everything." This is useful if you don't know what your users might type for the URL.
- () designates which portion to preserve for use again in the $1 variable in the second string. This is useful for handling requests for particular files that should be the same in the old and new versions of the URL.
See for more regex
- http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html#Regular-Expressions
- https://www.askapache.com/htaccess/mod_rewrite-variables-cheatsheet/
- https://www.askapache.com/htaccess/
Hope this helps
Tom
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Reusing an already 301 redirected URL for a very important keyword
I have a question about reusing an already 301 redirected URL Till now I never reused an URLs that has been already redirected with a 301 redirect. However, I just started working on a website where in past they created a lot of 301 redirects without thinking about the future, and now certain URLs, that are currently redirected with a 301, would be very useful (exact match) and needed (for some of the most important keywords for this specific business), to maintain an optimal, homogeneous and "beautiful" URL structure. Has any of you ever reused a URL that was previously redirected with a 301 redirect? If yes what are your experiences with it? Can content on the reused URL (that was previously 301 redirected and than the redirect removed) normally rank if the page is reestablished and the redirect is removed (and you do great content, on page, internal linking, backlinking, .... ) or is such an URL risky / not recommended / "burned" forever and not recommended to be reused again... especially for very important keywords since it present the exact match ?! Thank you very much for all your help! Regards
Technical SEO | | moz46y0 -
What is the difference between 301 redirects and backlinks?
i have seen some 301 redirects on my site billsonline, can anyone please explain the difference between backlinks and 301 redirects, i have read some articles where the writer was stating that 301 are not good for website.
Technical SEO | | aliho0 -
301 Redirects, Sitemaps and Indexing - How to hide redirected urls from search engines?
We have several pages in our site like this one, http://www.spectralink.com/solutions, which redirect to deeper page, http://www.spectralink.com/solutions/work-smarter-not-harder. Both urls are listed in the sitemap and both pages are being indexed. Should we remove those redirecting pages from the site map? Should we prevent the redirecting url from being indexed? If so, what's the best way to do that?
Technical SEO | | HeroDesignStudio0 -
301 redirect adding trailing slash to url
I am looking into a .htacess file for a site I look after and have noticed that the urls are all 301 redirecting from a none slash directory to a trailing slashed directory/folders. e.g. www.domain.com/folder gets 301 redirected to www.domain.com/folder/ Will this do much harm and reduce the effect on the page and any links pointing to the site be lessened? Secondly I am not sure what part of my htaccess is causing the redirect. RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.co.uk [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
Technical SEO | | TimHolmes
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.domain.co.uk/$1 [L,R,NE] RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^./index.php
RewriteRule ^(.)index.php$ /$1 [R=301,L] or could a wordpress ifmodule be causing the problem? Any info would be apreciated.0 -
Simple 301 redirect a subfolder to another subfolder
Hi, I have a number of sub-folders that I have to move, each of which contains a number of files. subfolder A has files a, b & c subfolder B has files d, e & f
Technical SEO | | aactive
subfolder C has files g, h & i A, B & C folders need to be X, Y & Z Will the following work? RewriteRule ^subfolder-A/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-X/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^subfolder-B/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Y/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule ^subfolder-C/* http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Z/ [R=301,L] will this result in visitors to http://www.domain.com/subfolder-B/f.html being redirected to http://www.domain.com/subfolder-Y/f.html? All on the same domain. in reality we are talking hundreds of sub folders and thousands of files so we don't want to have to reference every file individually in the htaccess. Thanks0 -
Can I remove 301 redirects after some time?
Hello, We have an very large number of 301 redirects on our site and would like to find a way to remove some of them. Is there a time frame after which Google does not need a 301 any more? For example if A is 301 redirected to B, does Google know after a while not to serve A any more, and replaces any requests for A with B? How about any links that go to A? Or: Is the only option to have all links that pointed to A point to B and then the 301 can be removed after some time? Thank you for you you help!
Technical SEO | | Veva0 -
301 redirects & merging two sites into one
We have a client that has two sites that rank well for different searches in their market. The main pages ranking are things like advice articles and news pieces. For various reasons, they just want one site. I believe they need to duplicate the content from the outgoing site and place it on the main site, with a 301 redirect from each old page to each new one. What happens when they eventually want to redirect the entire domain? Would these smaller, internal redirects become obsolete, therefore removing any link value they once had? I am not sure how this works or if there is a best practice way to do this. Thanks Gareth
Technical SEO | | Gmorgan0 -
Do search engines treat 307 redirects differently from 302 redirects?
We will need to send our users to an alternate version of our homepage for a few hours for a certain event. The SEO task at hand is to minimize the chance of the special homepage getting crawled and cached in the search engines in place of our normal homepage. (This has happened in the past so the concern is not imaginary.) Among other options, 302 and 307 redirects are being discussed. IE, redirecting www.domain.com to www.domain.com/specialpage. Having used 302s and 301s in the past, I am well aware of how search engines treat them. A 302 effectively says "Hey, Google! Please get rid of the old content on www.domain.com and replace it with the content on /specialpage!" Which is exactly what we don't want. My question is: do the search engines handle 307s any differently? I am hearing that the 307 does NOT result in the content of the second page being cached with the first URL. But I don't see that in the definition below (from w3.org). Then again, why differentiate it from the 302? 307 Temporary Redirect The requested resource resides temporarily under a different URI. Since the redirection MAY be altered on occasion, the client SHOULD continue to use the Request-URI for future requests. This response is only cacheable if indicated by a Cache-Control or Expires header field. The temporary URI SHOULD be given by the Location field in the response. Unless the request method was HEAD, the entity of the response SHOULD contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the new URI(s) , since many pre-HTTP/1.1 user agents do not understand the 307 status. Therefore, the note SHOULD contain the information necessary for a user to repeat the original request on the new URI. If the 307 status code is received in response to a request other than GET or HEAD, the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the request unless it can be confirmed by the user, since this might change the conditions under which the request was issued.
Technical SEO | | CarsProduction0